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Thoughts From The Publishers Desk

While trying to make some room on my bookshelves recently for some old bound editions of the “Resorter”, I came across a copy of “The Harper Book of Quotations” and became infatuated with some of the passages. Here’s a look at some of the quotes I may or may not be thinking about while I am on vacation this week:

On drink, drinking and drinkers:

“First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then drink takes you.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“I like liquor – its taste and its effects – and that is just the reason why I never drink it.”

— Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson

“He is … like many other geniuses, a greater friend to the bottle, than the bottle is to him.”

— William Lyon Mackenzie

On education:

“I forget what I taught. I only remember what I have learnt.”

— Patrick White

“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand.”

— Native American saying

“A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.”

— George Santayana

On cynicism:

“A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past; he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.”

— Sidney J. Harris

“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

— Oscar Wilde

“Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.”

— Lillian Hellman

On defeat:

“Do not be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

To lose is to learn.”

— Anon.

On experience:

“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experience.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.”

— Oscar Wilde

“Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.”

— Samuel Butler

“Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.”

— Minna Antrim

On family:

“As a general thing, when a woman wears the pants in a family, she has a good right to them.”

— Josh Billings

“I am he/As you are me/And we are all together.”

— John Lennon and Paul McCartney

“The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”

— Theodore Hesburgh

On fate and destiny:

“How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?”

— Bob Dylan

“Destiny is what you are supposed to do in life. Fate is what kicks you in the ass to make you do it.”

— Henry Miller

On fear:

“Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.”

— Albert Camus

“The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.”

— Mark Twain

“Once men are caught up in an event they cease to be afraid. Only the unknown frightens men.”